Attention

Monday, November 18, 2013

If you see a fire engine driving down the street, chances are that the firefighters inside are volunteers.

The success of those fire departments and the safety of local residents is largely dependent on people who are willing to give up their time for the greater good.

Pennsylvania has more fire departments than any other state in the United States and most of Pennsylvania’s fire departments are made up of volunteer firefighters.

In fact, out of the 1,800 fire departments in Pennsylvania, 97% are volunteer or mostly volunteer. One of those volunteer fire departments is Rescue Fire Department of Susquehanna Township, or Company 37.Read More

Parents, guardians, other relatives, and friends who are on a student’s Approved Visitor List are encouraged to come to school during American Education Week Nov. 18-22 to see first-hand the work of students, experience the school climate and culture, and show support for their child and for the school.

Parents/guardians received an Approved Visitor Form to fill out with the names of those authorized to visit. The Approved Visitor Form was due back to school Nov. 13.

Anyone wishing to visit a child during American Education Week but not included on the Approved Visitor Form must contact the parents/guardians prior to visiting. A parent or guardian will then need to notify the school to add the new name to the student’s list of approved visitors. To ensure a safe and orderly learning environment, all visitors must be listed on an Approved Visitor Form in order to visit a student.

“Family is important to a student’s success, and we hope everyone who is on a child’s family team will take time to visit the student in the classroom during American Education Week,” said Dr. John Fredericksen, Superintendent of Schools. “It’s a great way to see your student at work and to learn more about the great instruction that takes place in our schools throughout the year.”

The Obama administration may be alarmed over the dismal number of people signing up for Obamacare, the rising health-care costs for Americans, the legal challenges to the religious discrimination embedded in the law and other problems.

But all of that would be of no consequence if a lawsuit in federal court in Washington succeeds. It alleges senators overstepped their authority in creating the Affordable Care Act and the law, therefore, is null and void.

The case argues that since the U.S. Constitution requires that revenue-raising measures originate in the U.S. House and Obamacare was created in the Senate, the law is unconstitutional. The case is headed toward the Supreme Court.Read more

An openly homosexual columnist in Ireland has written a piece blasting his country for considering same-sex marriage, warning the state has no business reinventing the family and undermining children’s “right” to a mother and father.

Paddy Manning, writing in the Irish Daily Mirror, tells of being arrested for hitting on a male police officer, but warns the solution to persecution of homosexuals isn’t to have government carve up traditional marriage.

“Same-sex marriage is not some warm, fluffy equality bunny; it’s a bare-faced state power grab,” Manning writes. “The state gets to entirely remake marriage, not as the man/woman/child model we’ve inherited from 10,000 years of history and across all cultures, but as an anything-goes irrelevant partnership agreement between adults.”

Under Obamacare -- as it is being implemented under a regulation issued by the White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) -- a middle-aged member of Congress who earns an annual salary of $174,000 from the taxpayers, and who has a wife and children, will get a $10,000 subsidy from the taxpayers (over and above his $174,000 salary) to buy a health insurance plan that a regular citizen making almost $80,000 less than the congressman will not get.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare, included language mandating that members of Congress and their staff buy their now-mandated health insurance plans through a government exchange.See more

For someone in the middle of a cancer treatment, or someone with a chronic condition, this can be extraordinarily distressing, and perhaps dangerous to their health.

Edie Littlefield Sundby writes in the Wall Street Journal that she is on the verge of losing her treatment program for stage-4 gallbladder cancer. Why? Her existing plan doesn’t meet the ACA standards, so it has to be canceled. Her treatment program involves doctors at both the Stanford and UC San Diego medical centers, and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas – but there is no plan in the California exchange that includes both Stanford and UCSD centers in it network, much less M.D. Anderson. In fact, UCSD has joined only one provider network, and it’s a heretofore almost unknown type called an “Exclusive Provider Organization” (EPO). The “exclusive” means that in an EPO, coverage is provided exclusively within the network – there is no out-of-network coverage at, except what uninsured people get at the emergency room.

Despite the President’s repeated promises, there is no way Ms. Sundby can keep all of her current doctors, or her health plan, in the new system. Her preexisting condition doesn’t prevent her from enrolling in any of the new Obamacare exchange plans – but none of those plans actually cover the same treatment she was receiving for her preexisting condition.

Ms. Sundby’s predicament is probably not an isolated case. Abby Goodnough of the New York Times reports that many people are having extreme difficulty finding out whether the plans they are shopping on the exchanges will cover the current doctors or hospitals they go to, or the drugs they take.

Top insurance industry officials warned Sunday that President Obama's push to delay health plan cancellations would only make things worse.

Obama announced his proposed fix last week after insurers cancelled millions of individual market policies. The cancellations have created a massive political headache for Democratic lawmakers and a president who repeatedly asserted that Americans would be able to keep their plans.

“We have a policy disagreement,” Karen Ignagni, head of the industry group America's Health Insurance Plans, told "Fox News Sunday." “When you set rules in place, and an industry meets them, and then the rules are changed, that creates... problems.”More

After failing to turn out the base as Mitt Romney’s Vice Presidential pick in the 2012 elections, House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) told the Des Moines Register in Iowa that he thinks the GOP should focus on going into minority communities to seek votes.

“Go into inner cities, go into minority communities,” Ryan said in an interview with the state paper. “Go into communities that have not seen or heard from Republicans in a long time.” Ryan was in Iowa on Saturday for a fundraiser and birthday event for the state's GOP Gov. Terry Branstad.

Ryan and Romney lost the presidential election last year by failing to turn out the GOP base. As Byron York pointed out in the Washington Examiner in May of this year, six months after the election, the GOP duo would have needed to get 73 percent of the Hispanic vote to have won the election by solely focusing on Hispanics--when Republicans have not, at any point in history, been able to even break 45 percent of the Hispanic vote. George W. Bush got 44 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, the highest a Republican has ever gotten in a nationwide election.More

I’m interested in seeing where the audience of Right Wing News is today on the GOP’s 2016 presidential field. So, how about ***filling out the survey*** and letting us know which candidate you’d support if the election were today?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid calls them anarchists. Sen. John McCain speaks of “libertarian kids” in condescending tones. One thing on which Democrats and Republicans agree is that libertarians represent a threat.

Hyperbole and ridicule aside, one thing is true — libertarians approach questions differently than do Democrats and Republicans. Where the major parties develop “platforms” of issues they support, libertarians begin with a single assumption with which most everyone can agree — all humans are free and equal in dignity by virtue of their being human. Everything else is commentary.

The reason for partisan scorn is that the two-party faithful do not grasp that libertarians don't think in terms of issues. Libertarians think in terms of principles. They begin with the principles of freedom and equality and apply these timeless principles to the issues of the day. What emerges is an extraordinarily civil discourse. The civility arises because libertarians begin at a point of consensus, not a point of contention.

Lest there be any doubt, consider that libertarians as a group agree on very little apart from their first principles. In short, they disagree on how their first principles should be applied in almost all matters. And this is a roadmap for America.

GLEN BURNIE, Md. - Law enforcement is reminding drivers to heed state "Move Over" law in the wake of a Thursday afternoon crash that killed a Maryland State Highways Administration worker and injured another along the Baltimore Beltway in Parkville.

When it's safe to do so, drivers are required to move into the next lane when approaching an emergency vehicle from that is stopped and displaying its emergency lights.

If it is not possible for drivers to move over, they must slow down and be prepared to stop if necessary.Read more

According to a new report, deaths on the nation's highways, including those in Maryland are up and most involved motorcyclists and pedestrians.

However, this is the first noticeable jump in deaths since 1995.As Maryland State Police continue to investigate Thursday's deadly Beltway crash where a car drifted into a state highway work crew, killing 25-year State Highway Administration veteran Eddie Gilyard and injuring his co-worker, 38-year-old Nathan Brown.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a report showing such tragic incidents are actually on the rise around the country.Read more

The Worcester County Sheriff's Office has located and identified a person of interest in reference to Saturday night's hit and run of a pedestrian on Rt. 611 outside of Berlin. The investigation is continuing. Further information will be released at a later time. The Worcester County Sheriff's Office thanks the media and the community for their assistance in this incident.

The Postal Service's top financial official painted a grim picture of his agency's financial state Friday, as USPS announced that it had lost $5 billion over the last year.

"We are sitting here at a very precarious situation, our liabilities exceed our assets by $40 billion," said Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President Joseph Corbett, during a press briefing. "Liabilities of $60 billion exceed the assets of roughly $20 billion. ... We have a $5 billion loss and a $1 billion operating loss."

The agency's seventh straight annual loss came despite its first growth in revenue since 2008. Operating revenue rose 1.2 percent to $66 billion, thanks to growth in the post office's package delivery business and higher volume in standard mail.

But that was not enough to offset long-term losses in first class mail — the post office's most profitable service — where revenues declined by 2.4 percent.

Remember the days when you would ask a particular type of stupid question and someone would reply to you, sarcastically and rhetorically, “It’s a free country, isn’t it?” Stop and think for a second; how long has it been since you were given that response?

If it’s been a while, I can think of a couple of possible explanations. One might be that there are fewer sarcastic people in the United States than there used to be. Not likely. Another could be that the question just doesn’t have the same impact as it used to.

Perhaps the baseline assumption that the answer is an obvious yes just isn’t as certain or as accurate as it used to be. Maybe it has morphed into a legitimate question over the last twelve years since the twin towers false flag.

The criminal assault on our liberties which is the hideously misnamed “Patriot Act” was already written and conveniently available for implementation once the population was given a justification with 9/11. The source of that terror is in dispute, but terrorism it was, regardless of the perpetrators.

With the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, the police state mechanism was in place for the not so gradual erosion of our rights as sovereign Americans. They started with the easily-sold airport checkpoints and then expanded upon that to city streets, highway checkpoints, inland border patrol checkpoints, militarized homogenous police forces and the suspension of posse comitatus.

(REUTERS) — UnitedHealth Group dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks, leaving many elderly patients unsure whether they need to switch plans to continue seeing their doctors, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

The insurer said in October that underfunding of Medicare Advantage plans for the elderly could not be fully offset by the company’s other healthcare business. The company also reported spending more healthcare premiums on medical claims in the third quarter, due mainly to government cuts to payments for Medicare Advantage services.

The Journal report said that doctors in at least 10 states were notified of being laid off the plans, some citing “significant changes and pressures in the healthcare environment.” According to the notices, the terminations can be appealed within 30 days.

When a newspaper makes a mistake, it's typical for them to print a retraction. What's not typical, is for that retraction to be printed 150 years after the error. Despite the time lapse, the Harrisburg Patriot & Union Newspaper has finally issued an apology for an editorial dismissing the importance of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. In the original op-ed, dated November 19, 1863, the paper called Lincoln's remarks "silly", and predicted that they would be lost under a "veil of oblivion." Obviously, the words of the Gettysburg address have become a sacred part of our American history, and that speech is revered for all that it represents. One hundred and fifty years later, the Patriot & Union admits that they "failed to recognize [the speech's] momentous importance, timeless eloquence, and lasting significance." As they say... better late than never.

ANNAPOLIS — Republicans and Democrats alike appear to be lining up with legislation to alter and in some cases repeal the controversial stormwater pollution fee sometimes referred to as the “rain tax.”

Many have their eye on next year’s elections, and some are complaining of what they see as uneven application of the 2012 law across the jurisdictions to which it applies — eight counties and Baltimore city.

“You’re going to see a lot of stuff on the rain tax,” said Sen. Joan Carter Conway, D-Baltimore, chairwoman of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.More

According to RadCast.org, radiation levels around our nation are still spiking in some areas, but the erratic waves of radiation have finally begun to stabilize. Neat the East Coast, Fredericksburg, Virginia is seeing levels of 39 counts per minute, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is hovering at 34. In the West, Seattle, Washington is hitting 30 counts per minute, with spikes of 50. Some areas in the Midwest are seeing higher levels, with Frederic, Wisconsin getting readings of 49 counts per minute, and spikes of 77, and Colorado Springs hovering at 60 counts per minute. Radiation levels in Sitka, Alaska are higher than average, with spikes up to 51 counts per minute. RadCast.org reminds us that their alert level is 100 counts per minute, and they are monitoring our nation to keep us informed.

UnitedHealth, the nation's largest provider of privately managed Medicare Advantage plans, has dropped thousands of doctors from its networks in recent weeks citing "substantial funding pressure from the federal government." The WSJ reports that physician groups are protesting as many elderly patients are now unsure about whether they need to switch plans to keep seeing their doctors. Doctors in at least 10 states have received termination letters, some citing "significant changes and pressures in the health-care environment." UnitedHealth said its provider networks are always changing and that it expects its Medicare Advantage network "to be 85% to 90% of its current size by the end of 2014," due to the new health law (Obamacare). More job creation?

More than 3,000 people in our country are facing life in prison, without the possibility of parole, for nonviolent crimes. Many of them are locked up in states in which these harsh sentences are mandatory, and judges had no discretion in determining the length of their sentences. You may think that only the worst offenders could face such a tragic fate, but some of these inmates were locked away for stealing clothing, possessing drug paraphernalia, or having trace amounts of narcotics on themselves or their belongings. In addition to being overly harsh, these extreme sentences cost our nation nearly $2 billion dollars a year just to keep these nonviolent offenders behind bars. The ACLU issued a report on these unjust sentences, and they argue that it doesn't have to be this way. The report states that there are many alternatives to locking someone away for drug related offenses, and that these mandatory life sentences should be abolished. Someone should not spend their life behind bars because of petty theft, or drug addiction, and tax payers shouldn't be spending billions to impose these immoral sentences.

On Sunday, appearing on ABC’s This Week with fill-in host Martha Raddatz, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) admitted that Democrats knew full well that Americans would be booted from their health insurance plans as an effect of Obamacare implementation.When asked whether Democrats were misled by President Obama about whether Americans would be able to keep their plans in the individual insurance market, Gillibrand answered: “He should’ve just been specific. No, we all knew.”

The regional effort by Maryland and District officials to raise the minimum wage enters a critical phase this week in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, with uncertainties that could complicate the passage of legislation, including provisions in state law that allow some municipalities to opt out of the wage increase.

Last month, lawmakers from three localities announced a collaborative effort to lift the minimum wage to at least $11.50 an hour by 2016, with future increases indexed to inflation. Maryland law currently requires applicable employers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties to pay $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum wage. The D.C. minimum is $8.25.More

SALISBURY, MD Members of the Salisbury University and surrounding communities should be aware of maintenance projects Monday-Tuesday, November 18-19, that may affect travel and campus parking.

The City of Salisbury plans to mill and pave Camden Avenue, between College Avenue and Loblolly Lane. Only a single lane of traffic on Camden Avenue will be open at a time. Those traveling in the area should anticipate delays and plan accordingly.

Resume:Magnolia, DE- The Delaware State Police are currently investigating a school bus crash that sent eight people to a local hospital.

The incident occurred around 8:10 a.m. this morning as Sharon K. Hunter was operating a 2001 Chrysler PT Cruiser eastbound on Walnut Shade Road approaching Millchop Lane. James T. Bennett was operating a 2011 Blue Bird school bus with 42 children, northbound on Millchop Lane approaching the stop sign at Walnut Shade Road. Bennett came to a stop and then proceeded into the intersection to turn left and travel westbound on Walnut Shade when he pulled into the path of the PT Cruiser. Sharon Hunter applied her brakes in an attempt to avoid striking the school bus, but struck the left side near the rear axle. The bus continued westbound for approximately 50 feet dragging the Chrysler in a counter-clockwise manner before coming to a stop in the westbound lane.

Sharon Hunter, who was properly restrained, was extricated by mechanical means from the car and transported by EMS to Kent General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Her two grandchildren, who were also properly restrained, were transported as well for precautionary measures.

James Bennett was properly restrained and not injured in the crash. Five children on the bus ranging from ages 6 to 11 year old were transported to Kent General Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The remainder of the children were transferred to a separate bus at the scene and continued on to Nellie Stokes Elementary School located south of Camden. Bennett was cited with Failure to Remain Stopped at a Stop Sign.

Walnut Shade Road was closed between Barney Jenkins Road and Peachtree Run for approximately two hours as the crash was investigated and cleared.

On Saturday November 16, 2013 at approximately 1745 hours the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office responded to Stephen Decatur Highway in the area of the Frontiertown Campground for a reported pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Upon arrival Deputies located the victim who had been able to get himself off the roadway and call 911. The victim told Deputies that he was walking north on the shoulder of Stephen Decatur Highway when he was struck from behind by a vehicle. The victim was unable to provide any further information on the vehicle except that it continued north on Stephen Decatur Highway. There were no witnesses to the accident. From evidence recovered at the scene Deputies were able to determine the suspect vehicle to be a dark red GM passenger car that has a missing passenger side mirror and possible passenger side damage. Anyone with information about this crash, please call the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office at 410-632-1111

WASHINGTON - For years, Maryland public schools have been the best in the country, but now there are new questions about how they got to the top.

More special education students in Maryland are excluded from the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading tests than any other state in the country. The Department of Education says that could be inflating the state's test results.

The Baltimore Sun reports only 34 percent of students with disabilities took the 4th grade assessments -- forcing the overall scores to come in seven points higher. Only 40 percent took the 8th grade assessments.

An Arizona Highway Patrol officer stops a Harley for traveling faster than the posted speed limit, so he asks the biker his name.

'Fred,' he replies.

'Fred what?' the officer asks.

'Just Fred,' the man responds.

The officer is in a good mood, thinks he might just give the biker a break, and write him out a warning instead of a ticket. The officer then presses him for the last name.

The man tells him that he used to have a last name but lost it.

The officer thinks that he has a nut case on his hands but plays along with it. 'Tell me, Fred, how did you lose your last name?'

The biker replies, 'It's a long story, so stay with me.' I was born Fred Johnson. I studied hard and got good grades. When I got older, I realized that I wanted to be a doctor. I went through college, medical school, internship, residency, and finally got my degree, so I was Fred Johnson, MD. After a while I got bored being a doctor, so I decided to go back to school. Dentistry was my dream! Got all the way through School, got my degree, so then I was Fred Johnson, MD, DDS. Got bored doing dentistry, so I started fooling around with my assistant and she gave me VD, so now I was Fred Johnson, MD, DDS, with VD.

Well, the ADA found out about the VD, so they took away my DDS. Then I was Fred Johnson, MD, with VD. Then the AMA found out about the ADA taking away my DDS because of the VD, so they took away my MD leaving me as Fred Johnson with VD. Then the VD took away my Johnson, so now I am Just Fred.'

DATE & TIME: 11/17/2013 @ 1007 hours CASE NUMBER: 2013-00047398LOCATION Rt. 50 East @ Old Railroad Road, Hebron, Wicomico County Md.INCIDENT Possession of Marihuana, Possession of Drug ParaphernaliaBRIEF NARRATIVE: On the above date and time, a vehicle operated by Charles Herbert Spence, 41, of Preston Md., was stopped by a Trooper for a speeding violation. Upon contacting Spence the Trooper detected a strong odor of marihuana coming from within the vehicle. A probable cause search of the vehicle was conducted and Spence was arrested and charged with possession of marihuana and drug paraphernalia. Spence was released and is awaiting a trial date.

In a unique battlefield commendation, a Marine Corps member of Delta Force has been awarded the nation’s second-highest military honor for coming to the defense of Americans last year at a CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya.